


Tagged

by Zeiskyte



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Has Dissociative Identity Disorder, Gen, Loki and Sumi bonding, Written for The_Pen_Dragon's P5 Parent AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29972175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeiskyte/pseuds/Zeiskyte
Summary: Loki, Sumire, and various forms of gift-giving.Written forThe_Pen_Dragon's P5 Parent AUwith art by@Spaceteacake_!
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Loki (Persona Series) & Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi
Comments: 14
Kudos: 33





	Tagged

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Pen_Dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Pen_Dragon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Seashells and Stardust](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28684449) by [The_Pen_Dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Pen_Dragon/pseuds/The_Pen_Dragon). 



> This is written for [Pen's P5 Parent AU](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2102532), and will not make much sense without reading that beforehand. I couldn't recommend the fic more. Please read it (and her other amazing fics) as soon as possible. Very importantly, it has amazing representation for Goro having DID. I'm in love with Loki and Sumi's friendship and I needed to write it.
> 
> I commissioned [Space](https://twitter.com/spaceteacake_) to draw a scene from this fic - her work is amazing and you need to check out her account RIGHT NOW.
> 
> Big thanks to [Capra](https://twitter.com/cunningcapra) for betaing this. They put up with all of my work and I couldn't be more appreciative.

“Let me know when you’re done, okay?” Sumire said in her usual lighthearted voice, gesturing lightly with her chopsticks. “I have something for you afterwards, Loki-san.”

“For me?” he asked, picking idly at his bowl of _nikujaga_ , chopsticks loosely pinching a string of beef. He was already quite full; Goro had actually eaten breakfast this morning after dropping Jose off at school - which was truly an anomaly, considering his usual tendency to forget or brush it off. However, knowing that Sumire had bought it specifically for _him_ , he brought his chopsticks to his lips and took another bite.

“Let’s worry about that after,” she dismissed with a small swat of her hand. “How does the _nikujaga_ taste? I picked it because I figured you would need the protein, considering Goro-san hardly remembers to eat most of the time…”

Loki frowned slightly, inspecting the mixture of beef, potatoes, vegetables, and noodles in his bowl. “It’s food,” he deadpanned, unsure of what she was actually asking.

“You can tell I bought it, huh?” Sumire asked, a slight nervous tinge to her voice. She tightened her fingers around her own bowl, the remnants of brown rice, chicken, and eggs shaking with the motion, and Loki brought his gaze upwards to meet hers. “I’ve been told I’m…” she paused, eyes drifting down to her food, “not the best at cooking.”

He raised an eyebrow, nonplussed by her admission. “So what?” he inquired, hard edges of his voice accenting his harsh Japanese. “Excuse my sentimentality for a moment; you still went out of your way to acquire a meal for me. What does it matter if it was homemade or not?”

She chuckled anxiously, and Loki half-expected her to start unnecessarily apologizing to him as she often tended to do. “I guess I’m just used to being criticized either way,” she said with a slight shake of her head. Removing her right hand from clutching her bowl, she took up her chopsticks and pinched at a clump of brown rice. “Well, I’m glad you like it, Loki-san.” She tilted her head with a knowing smile, her long ponytail swaying with the motion. “I have a feeling Goro-san would be reprimanding me the same way.”

Loki rolled his eyes as he pinched a few noodles and the final shreds of a potato. “He would reprimand you for spending money on him in the first place,” he corrected. “But yes. He would begrudgingly eat whatever you gave him and insist you shouldn’t have put in the effort.”

“Well,” Sumire began, pausing to chew and swallow her mouthful of rice, “it’s a good thing you and Robin-san take care of him, then.”

At the immediate upward tug of his lips, Loki forced a small frown. “It’s our _job_ ,” he chided her, but the bite in his voice had faded. While he and Robin’s purpose had been to protect and care for Goro, Sumire had begun to implant a seed of doubt in his mind. While the concept of being his own person was truthfully intoxicating, he couldn’t accept it in good conscience. His job was to protect Goro - not to live frivolously and do what he wanted. No matter how adamant he was about that, Sumire showed no signs of relenting, considering she was just as stubborn and persistent as Loki himself.

She tilted her chopsticks down as she pressed them against the bottom of her bowl, the _click_ resounding loudly in the silence between them. “That doesn’t have to be your entire existence, you know,” she reprimanded with a determination she sparsely wore around him. When she turned to face him, the slight slope of her eyebrows, her lightly-scrunched nose, and her small frown caused him to hold his tongue. “I know he doesn’t know about you guys yet, but. That doesn’t mean you can’t do things that make _you_ happy.” She smiled at him with a hopeful glint in her eyes, like he actually, truly _mattered_.

After a moment, Loki sighed and lowered his chopsticks. “You truly won’t stop, will you?” he asked with an amused shake of his head. “Fine. Now let’s get back to insulting your cooking.”

Sumire’s determination faltered in an instant, her expression crumbling into one of surprise. “We weren’t even - what - we,” she sputtered, blinking owlishly at him. “Loki-san, _please_!”

He laughed at her quickly-reddening face and went back to his meal. “I’d much rather criticize it than talk about sentimental shit,” he explained, placing the noodles and potato into his mouth that he had forgotten about earlier. Insufferably, he continued, “Didn’t you coat an entire bento box you made for Kurusu completely in curry seasoning one time?”

Somehow, Sumire’s face grew even _redder_. “I wasn’t sure of what flavor he would like! I figured _everyone_ likes curry and - _ah_!” She abandoned her chopsticks and brought her hands up to cover her face. “This is so embarrassing…”

“I’d say sorry, but I feel no remorse,” Loki said, shaking his head. Realizing that maybe he shouldn’t go _too_ far, he added, “At least you cook better than Goro. He doesn’t even know how to fry a fucking _egg_ properly. It’s a miracle Jose puts up with his shitty cooking ability.”

Sumire patted her face twice, perhaps to snap herself out of her embarrassment, and lowered her hands. In a calmer voice, she said, “He’d love Goro-san whether he was a world-renowned cook or a kitchen novice and you know that.”

“Of course,” he answered, and he put the final pieces of beef and noodles into his mouth. Once he swallowed, he lay his chopsticks back into the bowl and turned towards her. “Well, now that we’re done eating, you said you had a gift for me?”

She blinked at him again, as if she had forgotten about her promise to him a few minutes ago. After a moment, recognition lit up in her eyes and she gasped. “Right! Sorry about that,” she shook her head, perhaps to snap herself out of her stupor. Once she gathered her bearings, she sheepishly asked, “Can you stand up, actually?”

Loki’s eyes widened slightly, and he silently worked his mouth as his brain scrambled to form a coherent response. “Why?” he asked, in lieu of anything else. “What kind of gift _is_ this?”

She reached towards her side and retrieved a small box that was just big enough to fit in her palm. At the sight of it, Loki’s heart dropped into his stomach. “Don’t tell me-”

“I’m not proposing to you,” she said immediately, and Loki exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Now stand up, please.”

Now that he was certain Sumire wasn’t proposing to him, his curiosity was outweighing his abrasiveness. What was in that box? And why had she gotten something for _him_ and not Goro? He looked down at his finished bowl of _nikujaga_ and reflected that it wasn’t the _first_ thing today that she had given him. Brushing the thought aside, he took his empty bowl and placed it onto the table in front of him before standing up and facing her.

“Well, uh,” she began tentatively, fingers moving to unlid the box, “I know this is kind of dumb but uh…”

“Stop stalling,” he grumbled, and she immediately opened the box. Whatever was inside was silver and glinted under the artificial light of the ceiling lamp above them. “... What is that?”

“I bought you a dog tag,” she continued lamely. “It’s hard for me to tell you apart from Goro-san and Robin-san until you start talking, so I thought…”

Loki raised an eyebrow at her as she trailed off. At her nervous laugh, he knew she was waiting for him to respond and had no intentions of finishing that thought. “This isn’t necessary,” he said to fill the awkward silence that had settled between them. Seizing his usual stubbornness, he chided, “You didn’t need to spend the money on a gift for me, either. You’re working on a pitiful teacher’s salary, you shouldn’t be-”

“I _wanted_ to,” she interrupted, and the rest of his reprimand died on his tongue. “You deserve to have things too, Loki-san.”

“Hmph,” he huffed, frowning slightly. Flicking his gaze between Sumire and the box in her hands, he asked, “Are you simply going to hold it and make me stare at it for the rest of the afternoon?”

“I - _you_ ,” she blinked at him in her surprise, “you’re accepting it?”

Unperturbed, he said, “You bought it for me, didn’t you? I’m surprised you’re not slinging it around my neck as we speak.”

“Well, if I have permission to, then...” Sumire removed the dog tag from the box, placed the box onto the table, unhooked the clasp, and took a step towards him. Pushing herself onto her tiptoes with a balance and poise he knew was from her performance days, she moved her arms around either side of his neck and began to click it into place. “Just put it on in public so I know it’s you!”

He averted his eyes with a scowl, but he could feel his face heating up at her close proximity to him. “Whatever…” he grumbled, but he couldn’t ignore the warmth growing in his chest. She had thought of him and gone out of her way to give him a gift. It was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for him - not Goro, but _him_. After clearing his throat, he said, “Thank you, Sumi-chan. I truly appreciate it.”

“You’re very welcome,” she answered with a bright grin. “You might have to hide it from Goro-san, though...”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said dismissively. Goro was still unaware of his existence, and he had no intention of revealing that just yet. Coughing awkwardly, he said, “... I hate to cut this moment short, but I need to pick up Jose from daycare.”

“O-Oh, right!” Sumire gasped, taking a step back. She began to gather her things, and Loki stopped her when she began to reach for their discarded bowls.

“I’ll wash them for you, it’s the least I can do,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m certain you have six other things to do today because you have no sense of self-preservation, so you should get going.”

Sumire laughed sheepishly, clutching her bag in her hands. “I guess I can’t say no sometimes.”

Loki huffed, “Learn to value yourself, will you? I can’t have my one friend collapsing and ending up hospitalized.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, making her way towards the front door. As she turned the knob and stepped outside, she called, “I’ll tell Akira-san something came up and I need to reschedule, okay?”

“A step in the right direction,” he said with a nod of appraisal. When they had first met, she would squirm with the idea of saying no to even the most absurd of requests. Perhaps she was learning to stand up for herself, after all. “Take care, Sumi-chan. And thank you again.”

They exchanged goodbyes, and the door shut behind Sumire. Loki waited with baited breath to hear her car turn on and drive away, and he walked towards the living room window just to double check. Once he was sure she was gone, he took the dog tag into his hand, ran his thumb over the sleek steel, and didn’t resist the smile tugging at his lips.

His first ever gift.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> [Talk to me on Twitter!](https://twitter.com/Zeiskyte)   
>  [Here's the Space's tweet with the art!](https://twitter.com/spaceteacake_/status/1369850663052615680?s=20)


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